A diode has the characteristic of allowing very little current flow below a certain turn-on voltage, and substantially more current above the turn-on voltage. It has proven difficult to form a large population of vertically oriented p-i-n diodes having a bottom heavily doped p-type region, a middle intrinsic region, and a top heavily doped n-type region with good uniformity of current among the diodes when a voltage above the turn-on voltage is applied.
It would be advantageous to form a large population of such upward-pointing diodes having good uniformity, specifically for use in a memory array.